The pearl of blood
2004-01-15 13:43
Lira, Uganda - A statue of Christ in front of the Catholic Church in Kampala, Uganda's capital, looks down on a billboard proclaiming: "Welcome to the pearl of Africa".
The words refer to a recommendation Winston Churchill made to compatriots after a journey through Africa, urging them to focus attention on Uganda. The country's three C's - cotton, coffee and copper - however, were insufficient to ensure sustained interest.
During the 1970's the world witnessed dictator Idi Amin's reign of terror in the country. And since president Yoweri Museveni assumed office in 1986 almost a million people in the north have been driven from their homes. Thousands have been maimed and killed.
Similar to Christ's statue, Africa's pearl has blood on its hands and feet.
Outside the hospital in Lira, 380km north of Kampala, a set of X-rays are hung out to dry in the sun. The gates open and a bakkie drives through. It carries a woman with a bullet wound to her leg in its boot - yet another victim of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
At the entrance to the women's ward a girl lies on the veranda. Her leg has been shattered with a pickaxe handle. Blood is seeping through the plaster cast, congealing dark red on her foot before dripping to the floor.
Blind eyes
In the ward you have to pick your way with great care. The wounded are lying on the floors and on beds, their unseeing eyes staring blankly ahead.
A nurse applies an orange-coloured antiseptic with cotton wool to a girl who suffered serious burns to her back. Next to her a young woman lies waiting, her skull cracked open by a panga. Part of her brain shows.
In a corner Delise Awor, 24, struggles on crutches without complaint. She has been a patient here for many months.
Kony and his LRA rebels had left the Lango region, where Awor lives, in peace for 17 years - until July last year when she, her two children and six guests were attacked by 25 rebels.
The assailants were between 10 and 20 years old. Awor was kidnapped together with two more women and six children. They witnessed the rebels plundering shops and were then forced to carry supplies to the rebel base.
The three women were released after three days. Awor tried to escape with her children to the nearest big city, Lira. Their transport truck was ambushed and shot to pieces by another rebel group. Six of her fellow travellers were killed and 17 were wounded.
Awor was shot in the leg. While hiding under a bush with her baby she saw a man's throat being slit.
Government troops commandeered everyone with a bicycle to carry the wounded, including Delise, to a trading post. From there a truck from a mission station took them to the Lira hospital.
Shrines made of skulls
If you ask victims like Awor why the LRA is doing this, the answer is always the same: "Kony is possessed by the devil."
Kony launched the LRA in 1987, opposing Musuveni's government by using the Ten Commandments as his "guideline". Following in the footsteps of his aunt, Alice Lakwena, who had declared a ''holy war'' earlier, he abducted children, training them to fight in his army.
He declared that magical powers would protect them against enemy bullets. The consequences were ghastly.
Residents in the north of the country were shot and hacked to death. Ears, lips and noses have been cut off in the terror-campaign which has been going on for the past 17 years. Girls have been kidnapped and used as bearers and sex slaves. Young boys have been required to swear allegiance and kill their friends as proof. Rumours of cannibalism and shrines made of skulls abound.
Dusk falls outside the Lira hospital, where the streets are crowded with refugees. More than 100 000 people descend on the city in trucks, on foot or by bicycle every evening. They carry piles of wood, cassava, mattresses and food supplies. Goats, chickens and cattle are also brought to safety.
Conditions are dire in the town with a normal population of 60 000 people. Officials and church leaders have warned that food supplies and health care facilities are limited. The refugees are small farmers producing most of the food for the district. Their fields are now lying fallow.
Lira managed to avoid the LRA's reign of terror for many years. Districts further north were attacked from Kony's bases in the south of the Sudan, where he enjoyed support from the Sudanese government, while the SPLA, a Sudanese rebel group, had been supported by Uganda.
The situation has, however, changed over the past year. The LRA was proclaimed a terrorist organisation after September 11, peace talks got under way in the Sudan and that country has undertaken to withdraw its support for Kony.
New tactics
Museveni's troops have been deployed in the north and rebel activities moved to the Teso area in the northeast, an indication that the government has committed itself to a renewed effort to stamp out the protracted war.
Kony's deputy, Tabuley, was killed and the four bodyguards of his successor, Vincent Otti, surrendered. The defence force says 460 rebels were killed, 275 surrendered and 2 500 abducted children were released in the last three months of last year.
Self defence units have been launched with the approval of the defence force for the first time. By November the Teso area had become too hot for the rebels and most of them fled. Unfortunately Lira residents are suffering under the successes of the regular army.
Rebels have changed their tactics: They are moving in smaller groups and kidnap fewer children, but they are continuing their killing and assault indiscriminately.
They plunder enough supplies for a day or two only, before their next raid. During attacks they use less gunfire as it is likely to attract government troops.
Screams of terror, blood spots
An attack 5km outside Lira last year serves as an example of the new tactics rebels employ. A village was attacked and 12 residents were bound and clubbed to death with sticks and pickaxe handles. The screams of terror of the victims drove their neighbours deeper into the bush. The next morning everything was desolate, blood spots had been covered with branches and the bodies had been buried. One of the bodies had been covered and taken away on a bicycle.
Over the next couple of days news from the surrounding areas continued with regular monotony: more attacks, more people killed or maimed.
In the local hotels, visitors follow CNN and BBC news bulletins on TV. But never a word is uttered about Uganda, let alone Lira.
While thousands of women and children sleep in the bush, refugee camps or on the streets and pavements of Lira, the rest of the world spends its nights peacefully, unaffected by one of the great tragedies in modern times.